Final Part 2

Post Modernism Slide Show Final

Modernism Project

Journal #31

My job shadowing experience was actually pretty terrible. The whole day I pretty much just stood there. I was at Memorial, so when we got there everyone who was supposed to be at Memorial met in the lobby with the head of the job shadowing  people. We all went into a conference room where we got our badges and all learned the rules. After that we were split up into our departments and taken to where we were supposed to go. I was in the neurology department which deals with strokes, seizures, and other brain disorders, and sometimes even things with alcohol problems and suicide watch. However, when I was there it was supposedly a really slow boring day. There were no suicide, seizure, or brain disorder patients. They were all stroke, or diabetes patients. The whole day I just had to follow a girl around and I just felt like I was in the way the whole time. I just wish it would of been a little more hands on, and maybe a little bit more interesting. If I could do it again I would of probably chose to go to the Oncology department because I was torn between the two in the first place. I did learn a few things however. I did actually get to talk to a neurologist, who told me that neuro surgeon is much much more interesting and I perhaps should look into that. I do think that it could be a career possibility for me. I just think the human brain is phenomenally interesting. I do want to go premed at school when I go to Mizzou. After talking to all of the nurses who were premed, but dropped it and the doctors who completed med school. I was told that if you just persevere and stick through it I can get there. They said the hardest part was just finishing it and having the right mind set to complete all of med school. It is not necessarily hard, just a lot of work and you have to be willing to sacrifice effort and time in order to finish the schooling, but it is all well worth it in the end.

Chanting the Square Analysis

Much of Walt Whitman's life was spent in search of finding his transcendental self. A lot of this transcendental self had something to do with soul or religion. Whitman wrote a poem titled "Chanting the Square Deific" and it is a very different view on religion. It shows four sides to faith essentially. As a Christian, one believes in the father the son and the whole spirit. The Square Deific is four different aspects however (Whitman). It is God, Christ, Satan and the soul (Oliver). The square deific was part of Whitman's search for his transcendental self.

The first stanza is God, or the father. God is a very general term because God is different in many different cultures. The god of Whitman's poem believes that "whoever sins dies" (Whitman). There is no such belief in forgiveness or redemption. This is very different than today's christian view of God. God today forgives one's sins and is understanding in comparison to this god who seems to be merciless and does not forgive one's sins. This god is extremely strict.

The next part of the square, and the second stanza is Christ, or the son. A lot of people think that God and Christ are the same thing, but they are two different sides of the square. In this poem he is not merciless like God, he is very understanding. He acknowledges that he went through crucifiction, and would do it again (Whitman). Hercules and Hermes are both referenced in this poem because they are half god characters. Christ shall absorb all the sorrow and the suffering in the world (Whitman). This Christ is much more similar to today's Christian God. Christ is very concerned with others and their sins and not all about oneself. Christ would be a good figure for one to look up to for their transcendental self because he is selfless and understanding.

Satan is the next part of the square. Before ever reading the poem one could tell that Satan and God are opposites which is why they are on opposite sides of the square. Whitman believes that Satan is both good and evil, and that a truly well rounded person is going to have both good and bad traits (Whitman). Whitman says that Satan is as proud as any and will not change his ways of a fallen angel. Whitman probably had a dark side to him and sometime expressed qualities Satan had. Everyone has bad qualities whether or not they want to admit it. Satan is just better known by others for his bad qualities. Other people see these qualities and know him for them, and what other people see you is part of the transcendental self.

The final stanza and side of the square is spirit. It is very abstract in comparison to the other three sides because there is no one person that spirit represents unlike the other three. Every since children were little they would go to Sunday school and learn about God, Christ, and Satan, but they never learn about spirit. Whitman says the spirit is the most solid (Whitman). The spirit can represent many things. The spirit is a breather of life (Whitman).

The spirit is going to be a huge part of one's transcendental self because the soul is responsible for purpose of life and is a very important part. Whitman's transcendental self is largely made up by the Spirit as well as the other three sides. All four sides of the square deific are going to help one decide on their transcendental self.


Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW082&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 3, 2012).


Whitman, Walt. "Chanting the Square Deific." The Walt Whitman Archive. Ed. Kenneth M. Price. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. .

Journal #29

My transcendental self is devised of three things. It is made up of my soul or spiritual self, my self which is my personality or self perception, and the real me which is other's perception and reality. With in my self there is an every man which is devised of self and real me. As far as soul goes or my spiritual self, I would say I am fairly spiritual. I definitely believe in God and all of that, but I do not attend church every single weekend not because I do not want to or think it is a waste of time but because I am usually working. Personally I believe that everyone should not have to work on Sundays and then we could all go to church. As far as my personality goes I believe that I am very out going. I love to meet new people and make all kinds of new friends. I also think people should all be very nice to people. Even if you do not like people you should still try to be nice. Most people might call this fake, but I call this mature. It is important to be nice to people because you never know what they are struggling through. I am not to sure what others see as the real me, I hope that the perception others see is outgoing and nice, but I never really know. I also think I have a good work ethic as part of my self. I work very hard at work and at school because I know it will all pay off one day. A philosophy or whatever of Whitman is that all nature and people reflect the idea of self. I think that I somewhat represent the basic teenager and do a good job representing them. There are definitely worse teenagers out there, but I am sure there are better too. That is why the whole idea of self is all of us teenagers or people all mixed together in one big melting pot.

Journal #28

Emily Dickinson's poem, I heard a fly buzz when I died is extremely interesting. First of all it is very odd that she did not title any of her poems. All of the titles of her poems come from just the first line of her poems. That first line becomes the title. It is very weird that the first thing she was thinking about before she died was a fly. Wouldn't you be thinking about your family, like your kids, or even your friends or even your dog? Why on earth would Emily Dickinson be thinking about a fly before she died. She could of been thinking about her house, or all of her things, or her car if they even had cars back then. It is just very odd that out of all things that she could have been focusing on prior to death that she focused on a fly. The only thing that could make this a bit more normal is if she was trying to focus and think about all of these other things, and then a fly interrupted her thoughts by buzzing around her. It would be kind of sad if you were trying to be thoughtful and serious and think about your own loved ones and then a stupid annoying little fly comes on by and interrupts your own thoughts. A fly would be annoying in that sense, plus I am not a huge fan of flies anyway. They are annoying little creatures. I hope that when it is my time to die and cross that path that a fly does not interrupt my own thoughts so that I can focus on my own thoughts and loved ones. Emily Dickinson as always used lots of poetic devices in her poems. Lots of imagery and personification was used as always. Her poems are all pretty weird, but pretty similar at the same times. I do really like Emily Dickinson as a poet. Her poems are all easy to understand and follow.

Emily Dickinson Partner poem analysis

The poem "Nature, the Gentlest Mother" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. This poem is a discription of mother earth and how she takes care of all of her children and her household (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which is a symbol of how Mother Earth takes care of all of her children and people on the planet even when her own children harm her. When she means harm her, she means things like pollution and global warming and things of that sort. Mother Nature however will never turn her back on her children, she will always be there for them. Nature is an aid to her children. SHe is there in the hills and forests in a way to aid the travelers of these lands. This could mean lots of things. A reader could take these noises as wind or as aninmals in the forest or as a number of different things. They are all signs and beings of nature.

In the third stanza of this poem, there is a use of personification. Emily Dickinson is describing all of the flora and fauna, and she describes all of the critters that are on the Mother Nature's planet. They are known as natures household and assembly (Dickinson). The Mother Earth takes care of her children with days from summer by providing nice weather to the critters and the trees. This is the time of the year when agriculture flourishes in comparison to winter where it does not. Mother Nature could make a harsh winter year round, but she does not because she is taking care of her household.

Emily Dickinson says that nature, or mother nature, has an effect on every creature that is on her planet. Dickinson says that it is the smallest cricket or the most unworthy flower still gets taken care of by mother nature. She uses a lot of personification in this poem because she gives human like traits to all of nature and its beings. None of these things actually have human like traits. There is also a lot of imagry in this poem because it is very descriptive. All of her descriptions are very animated and life like and strong. She creates all kinds of images, such as children sleeping, a very small cricket, and an unworthy flower otherwise known as an ugly flower. She presents rhyme in her final stanza, but only with two different lines, the second and the fourth. The rhyme scheme is not constant, but the rhythm is. Her poems are pretty different from other poets because there is not common rhyme schemes in them. She uses a simple beat to match what she was familiar with.

Emily Dickinson has a good way of capturing her readers with many poetic devices. The most common devices used are personification, imagry, and occasionaly a simile or metaphor thrown in the mix. Emily Dickinson captures her readers with out being confusing and using too many poetic devices. She is a very smart and good poet.

Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.

Journal #27

Apparently it was a known fact that almost all of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung or hummed to the tune of "Amazing Grace". Her poems all have rhythmic lines and the reason I think that you can put most if not all of them to the tune of the folk songs like Amazing Grace and Yellow Rose of Texas is because they just fit really well with different folk songs based on how she wrote her poems with a rhyme scheme and all of these tell a story as they go through. Amazing Grace is actually pretty ironic that they all fit because Emily Dickinson was not a religious person at all. I read in a criticism that she never was actually a member of her church, but all of her family was extremely faithful to the church and religious. She just sort of went with the flow and followed them and went through the motions of the church.Dickinson's poems have a basic standard rhyme scheme, it is not very different or unique. So, since one can fit into Amazing Grace or Yellow Rose of Texas, then all of them can basically fit into that rhyme scheme. Hymnals and folk songs have a very basic tune, and so does Emily Dickinson's poems. In the past everything was pretty much just iambic pentameter and very structured and very different than Dickinson. This was traditional for the time being, but Dickinson being the very odd different individual she was, she broke this and matched her poems up to what she knew which were simple folk songs, and hymnals. I think that Emily Dickinson's poems and rhyme schemes are better than her peer poets because they are so much easier to follow because it is just that basic rhyme scheme. Sometimes in other poems and songs that have a complex rhyme scheme it makes the story of the poem or song much harder to follow because of the complex system.

Emily Dickinson Writing Style

Throughout the years at Pleasant Plains High School, and I am sure other high schools as well, students have read and studied the work of Emily Dickinson. She is probably one of the most famous female poets, and it is pretty safe to say she was a very different person. Emily Dickinson decided to live her life in secluysion actually in Amherst, Massachusetts (Leiter). She expressed herself very strongly through poems and letters. She would not show any of these letters or poems to anyone, but her sister Lavinia. Lavinia acutally published her writings after the death of her sister. It is said that to actually understand Emily Dickinson's writing and her writing style you must understand her life (Leiter). She went through some extremely tough school, and had a very stubborn and strict father who had radical beliefs on women and their place in society. Religion was a big thing in the time period of Emily Dickinson, but she was not religious she just joined the church because that was what was expected, and her fmaily was a part including her sister whom she was very close with, and her strict father.

The poems of Emily Dickinson are definitley considered classics and are read nation wide if not world wide. They are however hard to fit into a category because of the subjects she wrote about and how she wrote them. Dickinson often wrote of love, life, death, nature, and would often question immortality (McChesney). These are actually common themes in pretty much all literature read today and previous excluding the Puritan writing period because it was all about god. In Poem 549, Dickinson speaks to the reader and the lines resonate through time as they will always be true: "That till I loved/ I never lived—Enough—" (McChesney). This is a verse that still holds extremely true today because love is such a big part of anyone's life. You can live your life and have money and be happy, but money can not buy happiness. However, a lot of time love will give one happiness.

Emily Dickinson definitley did not fit into a Modernist writer, but she was not a realist either. Modernist thought that society was oh so great and perfect and terrible for no reason. A modernist writer believed that a real person who is both thoughtful and real does not fit into society because it is mindless after the first world war we had. Dickinson did not seem to feel this way at all. She really thought that every single person had a place and a purpose. She wrote trying to figure out what these places and purposes were for people. Many people agree with this today. People were not just put onto this earth for absolutley no reason. Every body has a purpose, it is just up to them whether or not they would actually like to find it. She did not remotley belong to any onhe period, just like Whitman. She was just a writer who wrote about what she believed. Perhaps this is why these two writers were so successful, because they dared to be different.

Leiter, Sharon. "Dickinson, Emily." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Walt Whitman Writing Style

Walt Whitman is sometimes known as a "tweener". He is called this by some because he does not just fit into one literary period easily. He is between periods hence the name "tweener". Whitman was inbetween the Realism and the Modernism period. Realism was a writing period that focused lesss on the plot of stories and more on characterization. They were mostly things that could be real life events or were real life events. The charceters in writings from the realism period show a lot of how real life people could react to situations. Then we went to the Modernism period. Modernism period was very different. It focused a lot on losses. There was also a strong presense of religion and sometimes lies. They were two very different periods and Whitman fell right inbetween the two.

Walt Whitman was a poet during the 1800s, and he was not a tradtionally poet either. He sort of broke the whole idea everyone had about poetry and created a new type. Tradionally at this time it was all about rhyming and metric verses (Connors). Walt Whitman just did not believe that this type of writing represented our country well. Whitman instead wrote in free verse, and tackled some taboo topics of the time such as sex (Oliver). Whitman was not the inventer of free verse, but he did introduce it to America. It was first shunned by critics and not embraced, but eventually Americans learned to like and understand it (Oliver).

Whitman's poetry was full of sexual love and exalation of the body (Oliver). This shocked and startled many people because this was not a topic everyone spoke about at this time. It was extremely taboo. His poems were very graphic and filled with sexual actions and refrences. They even talked about homosexual love. It is said that some of poems had to be edited to be "family friendly". Many critics suggested the editing of them to make them less graphic and offensive including Emerson (Connors).

The story titled "from Song of Myself" is full of idea of individualism. The quote " I celbrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you (Whitman 2). THis totally represents the idea of individualism and of being oneself because for god's sake he says he will celebrate himself and that others should too. A critic named Matt Longabucco has a big article on Whitman's career in literature. he says that the poet is not seperable from his physical body and the poet is one of the roughs. No stander about men and women is apart from them (Longabucca).Longabucca realized that Whitman did have a general set-up to his writings which I have also noticed when reading his poetry. The idea that he is a "tweener" shows that he can neither be considered a modernist or a realist writer. It is fair to say he is a tweener which is actually what I think a lot of writers are because it is hard to posess every single trait of a period because sometimes you have to go with one's own values even if they do not embody the period completely.

Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

Oliver, Charles M. "Whitman, Walt." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

Longabucco, Matt. "'The Proof of a Poet'—Walt Whitman and His Critics." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh03&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 19, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "from song of Myself." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Walt Whitman Poem Reflection

From the first stanza of "On the Beach at Night Alone" you can tell that it has to do with Naturalism. The first stanza goes "On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future" (Whitman). The old woman is on the beach and being one with nature. Nature is such a common theme in all of these poems. I think that this was such a common theme because Emerson and Thoreau were such strong believers in nature. They thought pretty much everything came from nature, and this is why I think that all these poems have such strong themes. Emerson and Thoreau definitely had an impact on later writers because they have some common themes that all of the writers follow. Emerson and Thoreau were big on philosophy and I think that they were very strong believers and very strong willed. They had a lot of good ideas that transferred down to all these writers that came after their time. They had some ideas that were very different from people of their time (Quinn). I feel like people may have looked down on them in that time because they thought a little differently than others. It reminds me of the quote, Stand up for what you believe in even if you are standing alone. Whitman had quite a few poems that had to do with nature, and again this is because he is a writer of the Naturalism period. Nature was a huge impact on everything that they did especially the arts with literature and other things. Even the art that was done at this time had to do with nature. Even still today there is an impact from nature, but I do not think it is as big as it was. However, even today exercises come from nature such as yoga. You become one with nature at that time and it reminds me a lot of this literary time period.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)


Whitman, Walt. "On the Beach at Night Alone, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 12 Mar. 2012

Reflection- Emily Dickinson I meant to find her

The poem I read was "I Meant to Find Her" by Emily Dickinson. It reminded me a lot of the Spoon River Anthology because the main theme in the book was death. Dickinson was trying to get to a dying friend, but it was too late. "I meant to find her when I came;
Death had the same design" (Dickinson). The rest of the poem talks about how she wishes she would of got to her, and that now the person who has died was nothing more than a memory. This just reminds me of the anthology because every single poem in the set of poems common theme was death, because it was all written in the form of people who had died. The way I think people of this writing period look at things is like when someone dies they become one with nature. I definitely think that Emerson and Thoreau feels this way. Characteristics of both writers were that they learned things through communing with nature (Quinn). They believed a lot that a lot of things came from nature, so I feel that when a person dies they become one with nature. You can also look at it a little different way like that nature was punishing the person who died for doing something wrong. This is like the story we read last week titled "To Build A Fire" because this person died because he did stupid things with nature. He was punished because he was being stupid and was not respecting nature like he was supposed to. So then he died and that was the end of it. It definitely was not a happy ending and neither was this Emily Dickinson poem, but it did have meaning. I feel sorry for Emily Dickinson because she lost someone close to her to death when she was trying to reach her at the same time. If only that person could of got a little more time, then maybe Dickinson could of had a good bye.

Dickinson, Emily. Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)

Jack London-To Build A Fire

Jack London's story "To Build a Fire" was a story that has a lot do with nature. Nature plays a huge part because that is what the plot of the whole story is based around. The main character in the story goes out into nature when the weather is about negative 75 degrees at the time. In the end of the story the man dies in the cold after making a mistake because his feet get wet(London). This has a lot to do with nature because during this literary period a lot of people believed that nature controlled pretty much every aspect of life. If you treated nature right and respected it, then nature would treat you right and would respect you. This man does not treat nature right because it was definitely not smart to go out and interact with it when it is that cold. That is a time that nature would want to be left alone, but the main character does not respect the fact that he wants to be left alone and goes out in it. It has a lot to do with karma as well. If he would of respected nature then this would not have happened to him and he would have lived. This also has a lot do with survival of the fittest, which is a Darwin theory. Survival of the fittest is not only physically most fit, but also emotionally and intellectually most fit. This guy I do not think was very intellectual because he was not very smart to go out and do what he did. The realism period is co involved with naturalism. Naturalism has a lot do with nature(Diamond). Obviously this story is about nature. I wish the story would have ended better and he would of lived because even though he made poor choices, no person should have to die and freeze in the cold like that. The author, Jack London, actually wrote a second ending to the book where the character lived, but it never took off and went anywhere.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "naturalism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW410&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 8, 2012).

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire, by Jack London." The World of Jack London 2012®. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. .

The Richard Cory Blog

"Richard Cory" was a poem, and much like the past few passages and works of literature we have read has been very sad and pretty short. Anyways, Richard Cory was about a guy who was extremely rich. This man was the one everyone wanted to be. He impressed everyone. He made all of the rest of the people jealous because they wanted to take his place. They wanted what he had, meat bread and money. He however was still a very clean cut and genuinely nice man(Edwin). Everything about this man seemed to be so perfect, the perfect life, money, the perfect clothing. However, this is not how it was. This is only how it appeared from the outside. Richard Cory, the perfect man, goes home one night and shoots himself. He puts the bullet right through his head(Edwin).

This story is pretty deep. It is hard to understand why someone who seemed so happy and seemed to perfect to just end his life like that. Suicide is something that effects not only the life of the one who is taken, but all of the ones who loved the person as well. It is really sad that a person would cause so much pain to themselves and to others. However this man only seemed perfect by what people saw, the materials. Emerson and Thoreau were not very big on the idea of materialistic happiness because they are just things. It was his apperance that was perfect, not his life. He only looked perfect from the surface. Sure this man had material happiness, but that is not always real happiness. Money can not buy happiness in Emerson and Thoreau's eyes. This man was so much better than everyone supposedly, but he was so unhappy to take his own life away from himself and others. He had to resort to something so violent. Maybe if this guy would of spent time seeking the real happiness in life, things that matter like helping people and love then he would not of been so unhappy and perhaps he would of been able to live his life happily.

Robinson, Edwin A. "Richard Cory." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2002. 575+. Print.

The Darling Blog

"The Darling" was a story that was about a woman who was or has been married to a number of different men and some of them have died. She was loved all of these men and they loved her. This woman's father died when she was a small child and then she inherited the townhouse that her family owned after the death where she then lived with her husband of the time, Kukin. Kukin was a theater owner. He was a weird guy and seemed to always be sad because of the rain. Because of the rain he moved and left to go to Moscow to meet some actors to hire. Olga was told of the death when she was awoken in her house and she was obviously upset and sad about the death and moved on to the Vasily. Vasily Pustovalov was a timber merchant and she eventually fell in love with this guy and they had a child, a son. Vasily then died from a cold. So once again this woman Olga is all alone and has to grieve the loss of yet another husband(Glencoe Literature).

This story had a very sad vibe because it was all about losing your loved one and death. Everyone died that she got closed to and she loved. This would eventually make loving people hard because you would be scared to get attatched. Even though she would mourn the death of these men and she would feel alone she obviously got over them pretty fast because she moved right on to Vasily after the first death of the husband. I do not think she really knew what love was because that is not something you can get passed so quickly. I almost think this person was selfish because she seemed to always want to have someone there. Maybe to impress society which completely goes against Emerson and Thoreau because you should value yourself and not the opinions of the rest of society(Quinn). I think she needed to think a little more about loving herself and not searching for the love of others.


Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)

I will fight no more

I will fight no more is a pretty short literature piece that is about pretty much exactly what it sounds...a man who is tired of fighting and will fight no more although as a reader you are never really informed as to why he is fighting and who the man is fighting against. However, we do know that people are dying and that they are dying in battles. All the elders have died and only the young are left(McCloskey). I think maybe something a little deeper is meant by this. Perhaps there is a war and they are sick of fighting in this war, war was or is rather for that matter part of government. If this man was against war because he was sick of it then he would be against government. Being against government would relate to both Emerson and Thoreau because they did not believe in the whole idea of government especially Emerson who believed in the whole idea of civil disobedience(Quinn). Also both Emerson and Thoreau believed a lot on independence and not in society. I feel that this man wants to be independent and make his own decision to stop fighting instead of going with society and keep fighting. Also apperently society had not made the best decisions if everyone is dying and perhaps it would be better if people started to make their own decision and quit this fight. However, this chief justice seems very selfish because it was his job to fight and think and he is just giving up. It seems as if he is just giving up because he does not want to fight anymore, but maybe there were deeper thoughts behind this and as a reader reading this short piece I am just missing this. I would like to think that he was thinking the way Emerson and Thoreau did with the whole idea of being independent and did not want to go with society. I hope chief joseph was thinking with this mind set and not a selfish one.

McCloskey, Mary. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 01 Mar. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)

Edgar Lee Masters – Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology is a collection of short free form poems. It is an extremely weird collection because each of the poems except the first one which serves as an introduction is what is called an epitaph of a dead person, and it is delivered by the dead person him or herself. They make observations and talk about their thoughts of life from an outside point of view and some just talk about their life and when their life took a turning point. It is an extremely odd collection. It is said that a major inspiration for the Anthology of Spoon River was epigrams from Greek Anthology(Becker). This Spoon River Anthology was inspired by earlier time periods of anthology but I am sure that it was tweeked a little bit and does not have all the same characteristics. A successful Chicago lawyer, named Masters, wrote a lot of Spoon River Anthology during the weekends and stuff(Becker). This collection relates to realism because it uses mysterious things. Also, they have some talk of afterlife which might be a contradiction to previous literary periods where god was everything. If god was everything you would just go right up to heaven and there would never be no such talk as things of after life and what not. However, I think that both Emerson and Thoreau were smarter than to just go with the flow without back up info and maybe that would contridict things like just going straight to heaven. It is very interesting that this man was from Illinois, it makes me like him a lot more because he was from Illinois. He was actually from the area that my dad was from, Havana, Illinois. However, these stories were still odd because they were about that of an afterlife(Masters). This collection of poems is very different from all of the stories and works that we have read before because it talks a lot about death and weird things as where the other stories talked about normal things like love, but some others were about death but they were not dead people talking to you because that is odd.




Becker, Geraldine Cannon. "Spoon River Anthology." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1405&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 2, 2012).


Masters, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. New York, 1951. Print.

Two views of a River

This piece of work by the great literature composer Mark Twain was an excerpt, or chapter rather titled Two Views of a River. The story is him talking about how dangerous a river is or can be because of all the travel due to steamboats because sometimes it can be rather difficult to navigate and control a steamboat. I would not know from first hand, but Twain says it is hard. However, it is not hard for this guy he says that he knows this river like the letters of the alphabet(Twain). The main view someone else would see of a river is a beautiful piece of nature that we can admire, but for Mark Twain the river no longer represents anything near that. It is just a job to him. It is something he has to do. His first job was a steamboat pilot on the River, and at first he loved it but then just like any other job it just became work. I can relate to this, I used to love clothes, and yes I do still like them, but I look at them in completely different ways after I have been an employee at Old Navy for over a year. I do not notice the nice elements clothes used to have, they are just stock items to me now. The same for Mark Twain he wishes that he could just go back and make himself see the river as a beautiful piece of nature like it really is instead of a map of where he steers the steam boat. The only thing that he now sees on this beautiful body of land is all of the landmarks that he uses to navigate the steamboat he drives for work. You can tell what the story or chapter is going to be like just from the title. There are two completely different views of the river, there is the work view where it is no longer beautiful and the view of a tourist as looking at a beautiful body of land. The title helps you understand the story just a little bit more. The two views in the book are both from Mark Twain but they are different views due to times in his life where he was working on the boat and before he worked on the boat. He was influenced by the nature around him. Influence from nature is actually a characteristic of Realism(Diamond). Some times I feel like Mark Twain wanting to go back before I ever worked so I could see clothes how I used to.


Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

Twain, Mark. "from Two Views of the River" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 554-555. Print.

The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage is post civil war writing. It takes place during what is known as the Naturalism period. The Naturalism period was supposedly based on the writings of the scientist, Charles Darwin(Sommers). Charles Darwin was an extremely intelligent man who discovered and made the whole idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest meaning that the best survived because they had all the traits that were wanted to survive. Also a common theme of naturalism is that there is a lot of pessimism. This is present in the red badge of courage. The guy is worried about being in the army, but he was excited to be in the army because he wanted to take the glory and everything whenever they won the war(Crane). However, he was pessimistic because he was always finding something to complain about. He was very pessimistic and he always seemed to be frantic. It is almost a little bit selfish to be in the war only to be able to take the glory of everything with the war. He should want to be in the army to help and fight for his country, but it is their prerogative to be in the army or not. Personally, I would not want to be in the army even if i got to get glory from everyone. I just do not think it is worth it i would be so scared to be in the army you could die, I just do not think it is worth the glory. He was pessimistic and worried about getting blown to bits in the army. If he really wanted to be in the army for the right reasons you would not be worried about dying and getting blown up you would be worried about your own country losing the war. However, it would be nice for everyone to love you for winning the war, but if you died in the war and then you won the war then you would not even be able to claim the prize of freedom or glory from other people so then you would have done everything for no reason other than wanting your children and everyone else to be able to prosper from your good doings.




Crane, Stephen. "Untitled Document." The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Sommers, Joseph Michael. "naturalism." In Maunder, Andrew. Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBSS450&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 27, 2012).

The Story of an Hour

"The Story of an Hour" was a peculiar love story that did not follow the plot of other typical love stories. There was definitely not a happy ending. In the story you almost have to interpret two point of views. In the story a accident occurs and they have to break the news to the wife of a man who was pronounced dead. At first she cries into her sister's arms and then she secludes herself. From the outside the woman looks very sad and like she is almost in shock because her husband is dead. However this is not what the woman is feeling at all. She is actually relieved that her husband passed away because she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being(Chopin). After the death she felt free, her body and soul were now free. She no longer had to deal with the mistreating from her husband. Back in this time of the realism period women had far fewer rights compared to now and compared to men. Even if she was in a terrible marriage she could not divorce him nor even speak how she really felt(Diamond). However women's rights were on the up rise which is why literature was more commonly about women. Emerson and Thoreau believed in equality and equality means everyone so women should be equal to man. At the end of the story the wife is surprised with her husband walking right through the door, she actually dies of a heart attack when she sees him. Again there are two interpretations. She may be so happy he is alive that she was shocked and had a heart attack, but actually she was right back in her terrible life because he was still alive(Chopin). Very sad, but probably very common in the time.

Chopin, Kate. ""The Story of an Hour"" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 23, 2012).

Reflection "o' Pioneer"

The story that we read today was "from O Pioneers" and it took place in Nebraska during the time of the late 1800s(Cather). At this same time this new idea was sweeping the nation. This so called idea or movement was Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was the people's destiny or fate to come to the United States and settle event thought they were kicking innocent Native Americans out and actually mass murdering them during what is now known as the Trail of Tears. This whole movement made the Americans or Europeans at the time rather think that they were so much better than everyone else and actually helped develop some of the issues of racism further. It was and still is a pretty controversial issue. The Americans not only performed what was basically a genocide but they also paid them off to go settle in places like Canada. Native Americans that made it through all of this got stuck in the parts of land that nobody wanted and were and still are living on these Indian Reservations in poor conditions. This makes some big problems and makes the Americans look arrogent and pretty much like terrible people. They felt this sense of self pride like they were so much better than everyone else which goes against both Emerson and Thoreau because both of them believed in equality and were against racism. The American settlers at the time did not reat people equal and were pretty racist to both blacks and Native Americans.

During the Story from O Pioneer, Alexandra and Emil ingage in an arguement on whether or not they should move out of their land in nebraska after the corn crops have failed. Alexandra was against moving because she still believed in the land as where Emil thought they needed to move and find better land. The story then takes a huge leep sixteen years later and it looks like they decided to go with Alexandra's beliefs and they stayed in Nebraska. The two remained patient and sixteen years later the land was succesful due to the new farming techniques and maybe they got to be better farmers. The land they owned has been paid off and they are benefitting and making a profit. At the end of the story Emil is killed becasue he is found laying in the orchard next to Marie. He was always a little bit shady and sketchy and seemed like he always wanted Marie even though he was in a different relationship. Frank finds them and shoots them(Cather)...

A realism characteristic is that choices are shaped from your enviroment which is similar to the raional period(Diamond). This shows through during this piece when Emil and Alexandra are making the choices of what to do with their land.

Cather, Willa. "from O Pioneers!." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 489. Print.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

This was the first real long story that we read for this project, and it was actually a pretty interesting story at that too. It used some elements of literature that we have not previously experienced in this project thus far. They used both a flashback and a flash forward in the story. The story opens with a guy about to be hanged at a bridge. So from the very beginning it is both interesting and sad. I mean I do not want anyone to be hanged unless they are a real bad guy. Anyways, this story had a bit of truth in it because the author Ambrose Bierce actually has fought in the Civil War. It was just sad because he was about to be hanged and he had nobody that was going to come to rescue him and he was just left there to die(Beirce). I wish someone would at least be there for him, I know I would want someone to be there for me if I was about to die. And his poor wife probably thinks everything is perfect and dandy and that they will live happily ever after, but that is just not going to happen. The soldiers that killed Farqahar were really mean because they had bribed him to do the crime that he committed to start with. It is not fair for him to be put to death because for pete's sake he was bribed in the first place! The second part then goes back to the prior events before the hanging and during part two is describes all of these things(Renfro). A memorable twist at the end of the story when it is revealed that Farquhar has imagined his entire escape in the brief time between his being pushed from the bridge and the noose's breaking his neck during the hanging(Renfro). It is a a psychological story. It reminds me of the pit and the pendulum in a way. He was in the civil war and he was in the Union which means that he did not want slavery and was for equality just like Emmerson.

Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce. Read It Now for Free! (Homepage)." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

Renfro, Y. P. "'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'." In Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL0691&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 16, 2012).

Robert E. Lee – from “Letter to his Family”

"Letter to his son" is a letter Robert E. Lee wrote to his son during the time of slavery and the Civil War. A line that stuck out to me was "As far as I can judge by the papers, we are between a state of anarchy and civil war. May God avert both of these evils from us!"(Lee). I think this follows Thoreau's theory that you should do what you believe is right even if it is considered wrong. Lee wanted all of this to just go away. Slavery was a huge issue at the time, and Thoreau was actually a abolitionist. I think he felt so strongly about this because he felt so strongly about civil disobedience. Slavery was to controlling. I think that both Emerson and Thoreau just wanted equality and freedom. Transcendentalism was all about equality and freedom(Quinn). I believe that Emerson and Thoreau were right in saying they were for equality because I agree with them. At this time in history not many people, especially in the South did not stand up for anything, and this is why our country fell to pieces and we were engaged in a great Civil War. It is disgusting that people think that it would ever be okay for people to enslave others just by the color of their skin, it is actually disgusting that people would enslave people for any reason. I think more people should of agreed with these intelligent men Emerson and Thoreau. They knew our country was created to by equal. A lot of the things our founding fathers did were unconstitutional. I think more men like Emerson and Thoreau should of wrote our constitution and then maybe we would not of had all the problems we did when our country was beginning. Slavery completely goes against the theories of Emerson and Thoreau. It was complete and utter disgusting inequality, to go as far as to beat and enslave people. Something was seriously wrong with people who thought this was okay.

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to My Son." Weblog post. Wikispaces. 23 Jan. 1861. Web. Feb. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)

Ain't I a Woman

"Ain't I a Woman is a speech by Sojourner Truth about how she is a woman but she is not being treated how women are supposed to be treated. She is not being treated fairly because she is a black woman. One of Emerson's theories is that everyone is significant. This was also a theme in the transcendentalism period(Quinn). This woman Sojourner Truth did not feel she was significant which is sad. She did everything that she was supposed to do in life including raising her children(Truth). She feels that she is just as equal as the white woman who are so important. This makes me think of the Titanic how the women and children were supposed to go first because they were the the makers and the future. I agree with that, but they let the rich women and children go first. That is completely unfair. I feel this is how blacks were treated as well. Sojourner Truth also says that she is just as equal as a man, she can eat as much as them and that she has plowed, farmed, and done all these activities that men have done, so why is she so insignificant? Another one of Emerson's theories is no discrimination. Discrimination was definitely occurring during the time that Sojourner Truth wrote this speech. At first everyone was definitely not equal because there was slavery. After that, people were technically equal, but there was extreme segregation. Separate but "equal" still is not equal. I wish that everyone could of lived by Emerson's theories because then maybe slavery, racism, discrimination, and other issues and history may of never been an issue. I have never understood the issue of racism, I really haven't. If people did not discriminate instances in history that were genocides could of maybe been prevented. Awful things such as the holocaust were millions of Jews and other minorities were mass murdered could of maybe never happened. However, a world with no discrimination and that everyone is significant and equal is never going to happen, maybe in a utopian society. There have been inequality since forever. It is an issue that I honestly do not think will ever be put to rest, which is sad.

Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I a Woman?" 14 July 1998. Web. 14. Feb. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012).

Slavery Hymnals

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot" was a spiritual slavery song that African Americans would sing day in and day out while they were doing their regular slavery tasks. The song is about all the slaves just waiting for their own chariot to set them free. They are waiting for a miracle to happen basically to save them from their own everyday nightmare we know as slavery. The song is written by a group of negros before the civil war. It is similar to a folk song that the white population would sing or know then. The chariot is like god or freedom, a miracle that will make them free. They are almost praying. The slaves are picturing the freedom. They wanted their freedom. Henry Thoreau was similar in the beliefs of slavery. He actually fought for freedom.

"Go Down Moses" is also an african american song that was sang during slavery times as they were working and stuff like that. It is also a song of freedom of the slaves. They are waiting for the day that Moses goes down and that they will all be saved and no longer have to live their days in slavery. Egypt in the song is symbolizing the confederate states in the Civil War(Go Down Moses). The songs are similar to Henry David Thoreau because the song is about slavery and freedom. Thoreau wanted the freedom. Slavery was controlled by government which is not okay with Thoreau because he likes civil disobedience.

"Go Down, Moses Text of the Poem." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Enotes.com. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .


Keep Your Hands On The Plow - GospelSongLyrics.Org." GospelSongLyrics.org - Lyrics and Music to All Your Favorite Gospel Songs. GospelSongLyrics. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot." Enotes.com. Enotes.com. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .


"Keep Your Hands on the Plow" is one more African American spiritual slave song much like the other two that they would sing while trying to make the time pass. They were all prior to or during the Civil War. In the poem a hand is being placed on the bible and God is leading them to freedom. All of these songs are about freedom and how that is all they wanted. A lot of the literary pieces from slaves during this time are going to be about freedom because that was something that controlled their whole life. It was basically a deciding factor for all the decisions they made because slavery and what they were allowed to do and what they were not allowed to do was going to dictate all of the slaves decisions.

Calvary Crossing A Ford

Calvary Crossing A Ford is about a group of soldiers crossing a river...hence the title Calvary crossing a Ford. This sort of goes against Henry David Thoreau because he did not like government. He was all about civil disobedience. The army was part of government because government controls army. Thoreau even went as far to call them robots. Whitman wrote a whole poem about an army(Whitman). Also most of the poems by Thoreau and Emerson during the Transcendentalism period were about self and about one person because the Transcendentalism period valued self worth over intuition(Quinn). This poem is all about a group of people, and those group of people are also people that Emerson and Thoreau did not like because they were "robots". During the time this poem was written Whitman the writer of this poem was a medic in the civil war. So he would of seen something very similar to this poem if not the exact scene. Most of the Transcendentalism period writers did not appreciate government especially Thoreau. Walt Whitman must of had some sort of respect for the government because he technically worked for them. He is not very similar to all of the other writers in this time period. However, I have heard that later in his writings he gets more into the typical themes of transcendentalism and writes more about self other than groups. He changes a lot in his writings and does more of typical piece of the time period. I think I like Whitman's works a little bit better than Thoreau's and Emerson's because I do not always agree with their idea of civil disobedience. Especially the whole idea of hating the army and calling them robots. Just because they are in the army does not mean that they are robots. They are actually doing a lot of good for our country, fighting for our freedom. It is a little messed up that they could look at people that I have a lot of respect for in that way.


Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).
Whitman, Walt. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)." Books & Literature Classics. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.

Reflection The meaning of July Fourth...

To be an active member of society and in government during the time of the civil war and slavery, it was pretty much understood that you were white. However, there have been many hard hitting intelligent African Americans that were quite active during those times. Fredrick Douglous was one of those people. He was very opinionated and definitely stood up for what he believed in. He gave one very infuential speech that we were supposed to read titled "The Meaning of July Fourth for a Negro". I think Douglas wanted all of the people to take a bit of a deeper look into this holiday that we celebrate every year. Today this holiday is a time where you watch red and blue fireworks and eat hotdogs and just celebrate and hang out with your family and friends. Back then when our independence was just won I think that it was a much bigger deal, especially for the white population. During this time they were definitely superior to the blacks. The whites were celebrating their independence because they were seriously free, however what did the blacks have to celebrate at this time? They were not free in most states, they were slaves. They were not able to do whatever they pleased like the whites got to. This holiday was pointless for them, they did not have anything to celebrate. He starts out "The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too" (Douglass). I do think Douglass did believe that the signers were those two things, but I also think he was using some wisdom and intelligence, both themes of transcendentalism(Quinn). He wanted to get some people's attention. A lot of what Emerson and Thoreau did was take a deeper look into things, take it that one step further. This is exactly what Douglass was trying to get people to do when writing this piece. He knows what it was like he wanted everyone else to understand. I have a lot of respect for this man.

Douglass, Frederick. "The Meaning of July Fourth For the Negro." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Africans in America. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.


Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).

The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in the history of our country, the United States of America. It was given by one of the most famous presidents our country has had, Abraham Lincoln. This speech is given after the civil war has began. Basically in the country at the time they have their freedom, and government is good and all that, but each and every day men that fought so hard to be free are fighting again against men of their own kind...It is not really fair. However, Abraham Lincoln commemorates and gives this battle land to those whom have lost their lives fighting for our country. Many powerful statements are made this day. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced” (Lincoln). Lincoln wants everyone to be remembered for the good that they did, and I agree. Yes, Lincoln is a political figure and Thoreau and Emerson did not really believe in government, and basically thought they could do no good, but in this case I think Abraham Lincoln made a very strong right choice and I think this is a time that maybe these two men from the Transcendentalism period would appreciate a government figure because only someone who had great self wisdom would dedicate something like this and give this speech with such poise. Self Wisdom is also a characteristic from this time period known as the Transcendentalism period(Quinn). Most of the time in the literary period people were strong and valued themselves and I think most of the people in the time period were intelligent. I think Lincoln embodied all of these things quite well during his presidency, including when he gave this speech. He was a very strong intelligent man, I know a lot of people may not agree with that statement, but that is my opinion and I think he was a great president.

Lincoln, Abraham, and Roy P. Basler. "The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln."Net INS Showcase. Abraham Lincoln Online. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.


Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).

Civil Disobedience

For the reflection and analysis that we are assigned with this time we had to read a essay by Henry David Thourou titled Civil Disobedience. At first when I saw the assignment I groaned at the thought of reading an essay because quite frankly I usually am bored to tears by such. But, when I read this essay I was not because he actually has some extremely intelligent well made points present in it. The essay is divided up into three parts, the first part being about government and it says "That government is best which governs least."(Thoreau). Which I pretty much completely agree with. I do think that government is entitled to power, but in a lot of societes today their government has way too much power. The struggle power was actually a reason our country was founded. The first colonists of the United States came because they did not feel they were being treated fairly over in England and they did something about it. After the war when we were granted our freedom, they purposely designed our consititution at the time titled the Articles Of Confederation to have a weak central government because they were being run in a dictatorship before. The essay also goes on to say in part one that Why can't there be a government where right and wrong are not decided by the majority but by conscience? Thoreau writes, "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward."(Thoreau). The world would be superb if right and wrong was decided not by the government, but by our concious, but sadly that is pretty much impossible because there are good and bad people and not everyone has a strong enough concious, and it would probably result in complete chaos. It is not possible for a nation to be run on complete morality. A common theme of the Trancendentilism period is morality which is strongly present in part one on how the government should be ran(Quinn). After the Articles of Confederation were in place people could not behave and riots and rebellions occured that could not be stopped, which in turn led to The Constitution now being written designed with a stronger central government than before.

Part two is about how society should respond to injustice of the government and about how it should not be decided by majority because that is not really doing something about it, but rather just as a common whole what they express they would like to see done. He is against this which is self worth over society. Self worth over society is another common theme of the Transcendentilism period(Quinn).

Part three is about Thoreau's personal experiences with civil disobedience. He says that he hasn't paid a poll tax in six years and that he spent a night in jail once because of this. His experience in jail did not hurt his spirit: "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to break through, before they could get to be as free as I was." (Thoreau).The masses can't force him to do anything; he is subject only to those who obey a higher law. This is showing a bit of feeling over reason which is also a common theme(Quinn). He should probably obey the law because that is what you are supposed to do but he does not feel like it so he does not.

Thoreau, Henry. "Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).

Journal #26 - Breaking the Rules

Breaking the rules is usually a very bad thing, but sometimes it is necessary to break the rules. My favorite show is Desperate Housewives and on that show Gabrielle Solise played by Eva Longoria was raped by her step father as a teenage girl, but nobody ever did anything about it because they never believed her. The man is thought to be dead to Gabby and all of her family, but he shows up in her neighborhood and comes into her house after he is creeping around and he corners her and tries to threaten her and says he is going to do it again. She is obviously very upset and is crying when her husband Carlos comes in and sees it and is infuriated. He is trying to protect her and goes up behind Gabbys step father and he hits him in the head with a candlestick and he accidently kills him and then they hide the body. It is not okay for him to hide the body because that is concealing a crime, but he did not mean to murder this man. He was just protecting his wife. They should of handled the crime differently but the actual crime and committing the crime was actually somewhat okay. Another time when it would be okay to break the rules is if you were doing it for the common welfare of people and for the greater good of a community. Some people are terrible terrible people and do terrible things and sometimes they deserve to be punished. It is also okay if say a man's wife was dying of a cancer and the pharamacist would only sell him this medicine for a million dollars even though it was not worth anywhere near that. The man could steal the medicine if he was going to pay later in order to save his beloved wife's life. Some rules are actually meant to be broken under certain circumstances, but you must be very careful about breaking the rules.

Journal #26 - Breaking the Rules

Breaking the rules is usually a very bad thing, but sometimes it is necessary to break the rules. My favorite show is Desperate Housewives and on that show Gabrielle Solise played by Eva Longoria was raped by her step father as a teenage girl, but nobody ever did anything about it because they never believed her. The man is thought to be dead to Gabby and all of her family, but he shows up in her neighborhood and comes into her house after he is creeping around and he corners her and tries to threaten her and says he is going to do it again. She is obviously very upset and is crying when her husband Carlos comes in and sees it and is infuriated. He is trying to protect her and goes up behind Gabbys step father and he hits him in the head with a candlestick and he accidently kills him and then they hide the body. It is not okay for him to hide the body because that is concealing a crime, but he did not mean to murder this man. He was just protecting his wife. They should of handled the crime differently but the actual crime and committing the crime was actually somewhat okay. Another time when it would be okay to break the rules is if you were doing it for the common welfare of people and for the greater good of a community. Some people are terrible terrible people and do terrible things and sometimes they deserve to be punished. It is also okay if say a man's wife was dying of a cancer and the pharamacist would only sell him this medicine for a million dollars even though it was not worth anywhere near that. The man could steal the medicine if he was going to pay later in order to save his beloved wife's life. Some rules are actually meant to be broken under certain circumstances, but you must be very careful about breaking the rules.

The Minister's Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil by Nathanial Hawthorne is a very interesting story that leaves you wondering at the end. This short story has a completely open ending left for the reader to decide. The story starts out at a church organization where everybody is gathered to meet for their service. The preacher's name is Mr. Hooper. Mr. Hooper is a loved man by the people he preaches to, and was never thought to be any sign of weird or demented until one day he comes to the morning service with a black veil covering his whole face, everything but his chin and a bit of his mouth. Everyone is immedietely confused by this. They have no clue why the minister is wearing this veil. As the day continues there is another service for a funeral and another for a wedding. At both services the veil is being worn over Mr. Hooper's face even though he knows that everyone he has seen is watching him and thinks something is wrong with him for wearing this veil and not removing it. People begin to ask questions on why he is wearing this black veil over his face. He eventually tells him that he is mourning something and this veil must be worn until he is no longer on this earth to mourn(Hawthorne). This worries his lover Elizabeth and Elizabeth makes him choose what he wants either her or wearing the veil. Mr. Hooper chooses the veil. At this point nobody still fully understands why he is wearing this veil.

Mr. Hooper shares that he is wearing this because he is mourning a sin, but what is this sin he is mourning? This is so mysterious because nobody knows the answer of what could of happened that was so bad that you have to wear the veil for all of your life, and to lose your lover over something that you wear. Something deep and unknown is hidden in Mr. Hooper's veil. This is a major symbol of the Dark Romanticism because the whole poem is mysterious(Stade). It is dark and unknown just like what the Dark Romanticism is supposed to be like(Stade).

So what do all these readers of this short story get out of it? What do they think this terrible sin could be and why is this man wearing this veil over his whole face? At the end the preacher dies and many people are there but the ending never says whether or not something bad or evil under his veil on his face(Hawthorne). They just leave it open. After reading many criticisms I found one that talked about what Poe thinks this symbol was. It states Since the character himself never reveals the mystery of the black veil, readers have been forced to propose their own theories. Edgar Allan Poe, as well as other critics, have suggested that Hooper wears the veil as penance for a "specific sin," perhaps connected with the young woman whose funeral he conducts(Wright). I do agree that there probably was a specific sin, but there is still a mystery of what it was. Nobody ever knows and probably never will know which is why it is so intreaging. It is a dark mystery that the reader is left up to decide in his or her own head.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Eldritch Press. 1986. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).


Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCNH403&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 24, 2012).

Reflection - Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a psychological story that resembles very closely the major characteristics of a dark romanticism story. The main character has been sentenced to death during the Inquisition(Poe). That first theme or basic principle of the story is him being held to die, which is resembling a major characteristic of the Dark Romanticism period. A common theme is this dark romanticism is the dark, unknown, creepy, subject of death. He is afraid that he is going to die, but he feels a sense of confusion because usually during the Inquisition people are put to death by hanging, but he is trapped in this tomb. It is like a dungeon. He eventually beings exploring and does things like counting steps of the perimeter to see how large this place he is in because he can not see because he is in complete darkness(Stade). Being in this tomb is like torture for this guy that is trapped in there. Darkness itself is a common theme of Dark Romanticism as is present in this short story.

The torturing continues in the story. The narrator collapses and falls asleep and when he wakes up he finds bread and water. It is like the people torturing him are keeping him alive only to torture him more. It is terrible actually. After eating he ends up exploring some more and ends up falling and hits the solid ground, but his face dangles over this abyss like thing. It is the pit(Poe). It is a dark deep unknown hole that seems to have no bottom. He tries to see how deep it is by throwing a rock down to the bottom and the rock just keeps going and going and he can know see that the bottom pretty much has no end. This is unknown and dark and scary because there is no way he would live if he fell into this dark deep pit. They just keep messing with this guys head.

Eventually the narrator is strapped to a board and this pendulum is swinging at him. It is like he is seeing his life flash right before his eyes. He is just sitting there with time to think about him dying and how his life is going to end. He ends up being able to time this pendulum swinging at him to tell where it is to almost help cope with the fact that this pendulum is swinging at him. Things are less scary if you do not have the time to sit there and think about him, but the people are torturing him and want him to be scared. However, this fear is all in his mind it is psychological(Stade).

Toward the end of this story the man is saved and all of this worrying and psychological fears are not even worth it because his life is not going to end. He is finally to the point where he is accepting his death and he is no longer going to spend his time in that dark place worrying about it because he has accepted that he is going to die and that life is not going to be over because not everything ends in life...He believes there is some afterlife.


"Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).

Fear...

Fear is something that is inside all of us, however it is something that is completely not real. It is irrational. Everyone is fearful of something whether they want to admit it or not. I will a list a few things that I fear. One is spiders, definitely spiders. I also am fearful of bridges. I get so scared and creeped out when I drive over tall wobbley bridges because you could drive over them and it could collapse and everyone on the bridge would fall in the water and drown and die. That would just be horrible. I am also scared of dying. Because if you die then your life is over. These are all just little not real fears. I do have one fear that seems more real than the rest of them. That fear that is the worst is failing. I can admit that I am extremely scared of failure. I am scared of failing at school, sports, work, and even life. Okay, i will list a few other creepy scary things that I am scared of. Some are rapists, murderers, sex offenders, cats because they make me itch. I am also scared of the dark kind of. Some people have really weird fears, such as teeth, sidewalks, the outside world, eyelashes, dogs, cats, pillows, bags, cardboard, folders, and a bunch of weird things that they should just not be scared of. I am scared of school and Mr. langley too......But i get through it every day so people that are scared of outside like Howie on Benchwarmers should probably get over their fear and go outside and breathe in the air. There are some things that I like, but I am also scared or fearful of at the exact same time. Some movies like really scary movies such as Paranormal Activity, but I really like them too. I also am kind of scared of roller coasters, but I like them at the same time too. I always gets really scared of them right before I get on, but I have so much fun and I love them so much.

Spooked

Many times in my life I have been spooked. Whether it be by a scary movie or by somebody jumping out by me. I do not really like to be spooked nor scared, but sometimes it happens. One time my sophomore year I went to the haunted house in auburn. First of all they can touch you in this haunted house so that is just not okay. I had to sign a waiver to go in this stupid haunted house, but hey I am a good sport so I sign the waiver and I go. At this point in time I had extremely long hair and i had my face dug into Noah's back and the people in the haunted house start grabbing my hair and stroking it like freaks. It was so scary then they kept wrapping their arms around me and it was just extremely scary. Also this haunted house was so long and it seemed never ending. I was just super scared for what seemed like eternity. I never wanted to go back to a haunted house again after that. Also they had raw meat hanging down, so that is just disgusting. The people in that had extremely realistic makeup and were really good at acting. Therefore, they could spook me and scare me bad. I have gone to other haunted houses but none were as good as this one and I was just not as scared in haunted houses like the ones in Clayville especially because I knew the people in clayville, and i went to places like terror on the square, but that one was just not as scary. But i guess I was still a little bit spooked. Every year around Halloween it is a little bit fun to get spooked so I will go with all my girl friends and go to a haunted house. I also sometimes get spooked by scary movies, but that is hard to do because you always know that they are fake. Some movies are based on true stories such as paranormal activity or some murder cases.

Analysis of Poe's poem

Many of the great poet, Edgar Allen Poe's, poems have similar themes and messges. They are all very dark, mysterious, and lots of times are written to his loves rather they be alive or dead, either way. In class we read the poem Anabel Lee, which was talking of his astounding love with Anabel Lee and how he was taken from her, but the two's love was strong enough to fight through her being taken by the angels from him. A common theme both I, and other Literary criticists have discovered in dark romanticism pieces is that there is almost always a dark mystical vibe, also a lot of times there is something supernatural about it whether that be magic or something with death(Stade). This was present in Anabel Lee when talking of his love to someone who is no longer with them because she was chilled a.k.a. is now dead.

This common theme was also evident in the poem To one Departed by Edgar Allen Poe. The poem is talking about a memory of what is now an angel, or someone who has died. He refers to them as a seraph, and how it is nothing more than a memory and compares the person to an enchanted far off land(To One Departed). This is an example of a characteristic of the dark romanticism period because the whole poem is about one of his dearly departed which once again is death. And even talking about the enchanted far off land is a red flag to this being a piece from the dark romanticism because enchanted is mystical or supernatural which are two words often used to describe the writing in this period.

This poem, much like many of his others is very sad because he has lost a loved one. They are nothing but a mere memory to them. He says it is a memory he likes to think about, but it almost does not seem real even as a memory because in the time's reality they were no longer there. I know what he means. It is like when sometimes you dream about someone like your dead grandpa and about memories you had with them, and then when you wake up you have no idea if those memories every happened or if it was just a dream all along. The whole idea of that is very sad or dark and also a bit weird. Sadness, darkness, and strange are all also characteristics of this writing period as well. The love poe has for some of the people he writes about is almost magical. I do not know how he could still love someone that much after them being gone, but then again maybe he did not and it is just his writing that comes off that way. He was a very strange man I think which is why he wrote such strange poems. But hey this guy was pretty much made for writing pieces that were dark romanticism esque so good thing he was alive in this time period.


Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 18, 2012).

"To One Departed, by Edgar Allan Poe." Poetry Archive | Poems. Web. 18 Jan. 2012.

Journal #23

There are many things that contribute to making a story or movie scary. One thing that I think is a major contribution is the music. There are certain types of music that just make things scary. like Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah...That is scary. Also they will play this music and then people or scary objects will just pop up out of no where and scary the bejesus out of you. Also, a lot of scary stories have to do with paranormal things such as ghosts. Things will move without a human or other living things touching them such as a door opening all by itself and it is usually because a spirit or some other creepy thing touched it. Scary movies always consist of a story that just has an eerie vibe such as a new family living in a house that people were murdered in before. In all scary movies things happen to people that does not normally happen to people in everyday life. Such as in Insidious, a guy was a "drifter". During his sleep he will drift away and go into this land that nobody can go to. Eventually they figure out that his son is a drifter too, and he drifts to this land and gets caught by the bad devil guy. In almost all scary movies there is never a happy ending. Like in Insidious the dad you think he is all good and saves his son, but he is actually possessed and ends up killing his wife. It is sad because for once you think it is all going to end up good. I guess at least the boy was saved. I do like scary movies, but it is actually hard to make them actually scary...Insidious was a pretty scary movie, and so was movies like paranormal activity. Paranormal Activity was scary because it actually seemed real. oh! and they also usually have to deal with the devil because he is bad...

Journal #22 Poem about sledding

During the cold winter pretty snows shine
Covers the ground with white very cold flake
When snow falls hard you can go out to sled
sometimes i would rather be in my bed
Before I sled I want to eat some cake
I eat then I get clothes without any whine

go out to sled and i know I'll be fine
under all my clothing my skin will bake
Especially under my hat, my head
I will not get to hot that I'd be dead
Sometimes I play fight with Daniel that's fake
Later that night, hungry we will go dine

When I am out sledding I wait in line
Am so nervous that my two legs will shake
Trash talk from kids older than I was said
Will go so fast on my plastic made sled
Trophy if real, I would go fast and take
Super star I will be, so fast I shine

So proud my friends will be waiting in line
I hope they are staying warm for their sake
hope they do not think I have some big head
other wise they might stab me with some lead
so far out that I sled atop a lake
it is frozen so I know I'll be fine

Journal #21 - Snowy Scene

It is very difficult to describe a snowy scene because it has been such a long while since I have seen such a sight. From what I can recall from years past snow it is a beauty. The ground is dusted with gorgeous, white, majestic snowflakes, each one unique from the other. It falls like thick rain from the sky and falls over the ground so much prettier than rain. It does not build up and flood the streets as rain does. Snow is a mystical being. It is not liquid, but not solid...so what is it? IT IS SNOW. With snow comes all kinds of activities that make you feel like a kid again. Sledding with intense speed down a hill, making snow balls to have a snowball fight, or making snow angels all come with the fabulous snow. Snow can make even the oldest people feel young again, it can make you feel just like you were when you were ten. When you step outside into the cold your cheeks turn rosy red and so does your nose. You get to bundle up into thick coats with scarfs, mittens or gloves, and hats. Snow is the best part of winter because it is happy for everyone, unless you are driving of course because snow can sometimes be dangerous, but hey it can still be fun sliding around every which way driving on the snow. It makes kids feel like kids and adults feel like kids again. I really want to snow a big snow this year. Last year there was three whole fun days of snow days, which we of course had to make up, but it was definitely worth it. When I am a senior I hope that there is about a billion snow days so that I get to miss school to stay home and act like a little kid and make snow angles, go sledding, and pelt my brother with snow balls.